The Convention of the Federation of University Students of Uruguay (FEUU) and the Council of Ministers of the Latin American Integration Association (Aladi) served as platforms in Montevideo where denunciation of the blockade against Cuba resonated strongly.

This week, the FEUU Convention—the highest body gathering roughly one hundred delegates from the organization—issued a declaration of solidarity with the embattled Caribbean island and condemned the U.S. embargo. The pronouncement was emphatic in its rejection of the unilateral and extraterritorial blockade policy that Washington has enforced for over six decades. It states that the policy “flagrantly violates the UN Charter and international law.”

The student group from the University of the Republic noted that the damages inflicted on the island are brutal, estimating that between March 1, 2024, and February 28, 2025, the blockade caused material losses of approximately $7.556 billion.

Concurrently, on September 2, Cuba denounced the human cost of the blockade and the coercive policies that hinder integration processes in Latin America. This position was articulated by Cuban Ambassador Lissett Pérez before the 20th Aladi Council of Foreign Ministers, which unanimously approved the appointment of Bolivian economist and professor Adhemar Guzmán as the new secretary general.

In her address, the Cuban diplomat questioned: “How will a framework of genuine integration be sustainable in the face of unilateral, arbitrary, discriminatory, and unjustified coercive measures, including tariff hikes and protectionist barriers?” She underscored the need for responses to extraterritorial sanctions that paralyze transactions, block banking channels, prevent payments or collections involving Cuba, and can potentially affect regional enterprises.

Ambassador Pérez specifically denounced the oil embargo against her country, which directly undermines basic services for the Caribbean nation. She stated that the blockade restricts medical emergency transports, generates severe shortages of food and medicines, and subjects families to exhausting, persistent stress aggravated by constant power outages and daily deprivations that “suffocate our people day after day.” She emphasized that an impact of this magnitude “contravenes the noblest purpose we all share within Aladi, which is for trade to be an effective tool for social development, stability, and the well-being of our peoples.”